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Welcome To a Greener World!

At-Home Donation Pick Ups are available in Chicago!

Got Spring Fever? Why not take this time to clean out your closet? Soon the first flowers will come out and green thumbs start itching. Time to find the shorts, t-shirts, hats and put away heavy clothing.

If you have clothes and shoes to donate but not the time to visit one of our donation boxes, we'll drive the extra mile for you.

Schedule a convenient time and we will retrieve clothes and shoes directly from your doorstep.

Fill out the online form to request a free at-home donation pick up here.

Many rural areas in Mozambique have no access to electricity and rely on traditional methods such as firewood and oil lamps to provide lighting at night. In addition to being more expensive, producing unhealthy fumes and being dangerous within households, especially with children, the use of firewood and oil are harmful for the environment.

It is in this context that a project based on solar energy as a source for lighting and income was launched in 2011 in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The objective of the project was to offer 18,000 people with an access to clean and sustainable energy sources at an affordable price and to contribute to increasing their household income by encouraging environmentally friendly small-scale businesses among local community organizations. The Gaia Movement USA is proud to be one of the sponsors for this initiative which is implemented by ADPP and highlighted by the European Union.

The Gaia Movement would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all the people who donated their like-new and used clothing and other items. We had a very successful campaign to give back into our community in December 2014.

We had volunteers coming almost every Saturday to sort, clean and pack coats, books and toys for our Winter Campaign. As a result we have given out:

- In Ward 9 with Alderman Beale 102 Toys, 107 Books and 50 Coats

- In Ward 7 with Alderman Homes 97 Toys and 107 Books

- In Ward 15 with Alderman Foulkes 226 Toys and 168 Books

- In Ward 47 with Alderman Pawar 187 Toys, 369 Books and 45 Coats

- To the Community Links 74 Toys and 80 Books

- To the First UMC Chicago Lawn 326 Toys, 135 Books and 50 Coats

All together we distributed 1012 Toys, 966 Books and 145 Coats in the community in Chicago. Without your help this would not have been possible. Thank you and please continue to support us so together we do more for the planet and its people. Have a Successful 2015!

Over the next year Gaia will install a solar photovoltaic(PV) system for electricity. The suns energy is free, clean, and nearly infinite. By harvesting the energy Gaia will reduce our use of carbon and nuclear fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and become more sustainable. The system will produce 11,500 kW’s of energy every year, covering about two-thirds of the electricity needed at Gaia’s facility. It will be mounted on raised racks outside of Gaia’s warehouse, near the community garden.

The Treeplanting Fund supports projects within the Federation Humana People to People that are interested in participating in an action to plant millions of trees during 2013-2014. There are many good reasons to support such activities, not only due to the role trees have mitigating Global Warming, but also because of the general benefits people and nature get from having trees.

The project has started in September 2013 and ended in July 2014. During this time in Africa, India, China and in St. Vincent activists mobilized the local community to grow and plant seedlings into their community and vulnerable deforested areas to bring back the original vegetation destroyed by excessive farming, grazing and firewood harvesting.

As a result we have planted in total of 8,016,000 trees in Belize, Botswana, Brazil, China, DR Congo, Guinea Bissau, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, St. Vincent, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Once again it is time for The Gaia-Movement’s winter distribution of items. We will be providing toys, children’s books, coats, and blankets. If you are a local organization, charity or ward and will be giving away these items to residents in your area we are happy to provide them.

Alderman Anthony Beale, George Cardenas, Toni Foulkes, Ameya Pawar. Community Links of Chicago, Metro Family Services and PAWS. We enjoyed working with you last year and hope we can partner again this year.

The Gaia Movement USA has recently sponsored Alex Curry one of our colleagues to participate in a Climate Compliance Conference and learn more about Global Warming, Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture and what does it take to adapt to the rapidly changing world we live in.

The program takes place in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and running for 10 years where new climate activist can start in March, July and November. Students join for six months at the time. A small group of Climate Activists together with a big group of people from St. Vincent aim to spearhead that St. Vincent become Climate Compliant by 2021. The topics covered by this program range from Food and Energy Security to Recycling and Pollution.

Recycling is Good for the EnvironmentThe U.S It takes less energy to create new items from recycled materials than it does to create new products from raw materials. Mining minerals and milling trees into lumber requires vast amounts of energy. Recycling allows us to reuse materials many times to conserve natural resources while creating the products we use in our everyday lives. Extracting materials from mines or forests is done far from the place where goods are consumed; however recycling starts in your own home. Gathering recyclables and reprocessing them into feedstock for future products is done locally by people who live, work and spend money in their own communities. Burning garbage or throwing waste into landfills produces byproducts that pollute the environment. Runoff from landfills and metals like mercury find their way into streams, rivers and oceans, fish, and eventually into human beings, harming our health.

Why should we care about Landfills?The U.S. has 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 old municipal landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. However, in the "good old days," every town (and many businesses and factories) had its own dump.There are 39,044 general purpose local governments in the United States - 3,043 county governments and 36,001 sub-county general purpose governments (towns & townships). One suspects that there are many more old and abandoned commercial, private, and municipal dumps than the 10,000 estimated by the EPA.

All landfills could require remediation, but particularly landfills built in the last 60 years will require thorough clean-up due to the disposal of highly toxic chemicals manufactured and sold since the 1940's.

Greening your kitchen

Kitchens are a major source of harm for the environment. Often times, it is a place where food is wasted, water is used in abundance and energy is used in excess. Thus, when attempting to make changes to go green, it is important to evaluate the practices one is using in his or her kitchen and make applicable changes.

Eco-friendly cleaning products

Green cleaning techniques and products avoid the use of chemically reactive and toxic cleaning products which contain various toxic chemicals, some of which emit volatile organic compounds causing respiratory, dermatological and other conditions. Green cleaning can also describe the way residential and industrial cleaning products are manufactured, packaged and distributed. If the manufacturing process is environmentally friendly and the products are biodegradable, then the term "green" or "eco-friendly" may apply.

Green cleaning is behavioral as well as simply using healthy and environmentally friendly products. Consumers are being made aware of the ways in which green cleaning is most-effectively used. In fact, more emphasis these days is being placed on microfiber technology which eliminates the need for chemical cleaning supplies, or even green cleaners. Just water alone and a quality microfiber cloth can eliminate over 99% of bacteria from hard surfaces. Using very hot water or steam cleaning is also and effective method without chemicals simply by heat-treating the surface.

Your carbon footprint Footprints offer clues about where we came from and where we're headed. Their impressions tell us something about the animals that leave them. But while actual footprints offer details on size, weight and speed, carbon footprints measure how much carbon dioxide (CO2) we produce just by going about our daily lives. A drive to work, a flip of a light switch and a flight out of town all rely on the combustion of fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas. When fossil fuels burn, they emit greenhouse gases like CO2 that contribute to global warming. Ninety-eight percent of atmospheric CO2 comes from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The lungs of Earth

Tropical rainforests are often called the "lungs of the planet" because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. But the amount of carbon dioxide that rainforests absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate. Rainforests do play a key role in the global ecosystem. Some experts are now calling them the "air conditioners to the world," because their dark depths absorb heat from the sun. Without the forest cover, these regions would reflect more heat into the atmosphere, warming the rest of the world. Losing the rainforests may also have a profound effect on global wind and rainfall patterns, potentially causing droughts throughout the United States and other areas.

The act of deforestation itself affects the environment as a whole. Roughly 30 percent of the carbon dioxide released in the air (a leading cause of global warming) comes from burning the rainforests.

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The Environmental Impact of Clothes

Here is something you can feel good about:

Every pound of clothes donated saves 8.8 lbs of CO2!

Help save the Environment

By donating unused clothes you contribute to the good health of our planet. Production of new cotton as well as other textile fibers puts a strain on the environment: To produce 1 lb. of clothes -that is 1 pair of trousers - requires on average:

Carbon Footprint

The Gaia Movement USA encourages all people to understand their impact on the environment. Whether you realize it or not, your purchases, bathing habits, food choices, and other decisions all have an effect on the planet. Because of this, Gaia advises citizens to read up on how to reduce their carbon footprint and therefore help to preserve the long-term stability of the environment.

Green by Gardening

When it comes to helping the earth, many people feel they are powerless to affect the major factors responsible for environmental degradation. To some degree, this is true, but that does not discount the value in trying to introduce more sustainable practices in one’s life.

Comprehensive Recycling

In order to make recycling as successful as possible, you need to take the time to sort recyclables into separate containers. Here’s why. Each type of recyclable material must undergo a different process to prepare it to be used again, so items will need to be sorted at some point. If your recyclables are all mixed up with the garbage, it makes it more difficult for trash companies to sort and it’s likely that many recyclable items will get lost amidst the waste, ending up in the landfill.

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Our Main Office also accepts clothing donations,run recycling programs, educate small groups on environmental issues and welcomes volunteers on open days.

General Information

The Gaia Movement USA, is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. We started in 1999 in Illinois and have now expanded operations in Indiana, California, Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon. Our mission is to create awareness about the plight of the environment, to educate the public about caring for our planet, humanity and the environment, to run recycling operations and to support environmental projects and programs locally and globally.